Labor policy scores a credit

Universities have labelled the Labor government’s long-awaited higher education election statement a “steady as she goes" approach that indicates “serious commitment" to the sector.

Labor’s first focus on higher education during the election campaign contained no new funding commitments to higher education. It reiterated earlier achievements, including student income support reform and the abolition of full up-front fees for domestic undergraduate degrees.

Labor also stood by earlier commitments, including improved indexation of grants that will deliver an extra $2.6 billion to universities from 2011, $433 million over three years to increase the proportion of disadvantaged students at university, and funding for every undergraduate given a university place from 2012.

While there were no new announcements, Universities Australia took comfort in the announcement’s support of the Bradley review’s recommendations for higher education.

“There is a clear assurance that this commitment will continue if they are elected for a further term, and we look forward to higher education funding increasing as a share of GDP," Universities Australia chief executive
Glenn Withers
said.

Dr Withers commended the Greens on “a comprehensive set of policies", in particular the party’s proposals on Youth Allowance, rental affordability, and postgraduate research awards.

But he said the Coalition’s costings for projected expenditure and savings was a “mixed bag". Of particular concern are plans to diminish the Education Investment Fund (EIF) to partially fund training centres, and to reduce funding for low socio-economic status (SES) students.

The Coalition has announced plans to cut $227 million that would deny support to more than 200,000 low-SES students in universities.

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“The Coalition stated in May 2010 that it would restore the EIF and make it a ‘universities only’ fund," Dr Withers said. “We would look to them to honour that intention and ensure that infrastructure funding available to universities through the EIF is quarantined and that it is renewed from surpluses." But he welcomed the Coalition’s promise of an additional $322 million for Youth Allowance.

The National Tertiary Education Union’s policy and research co-ordinator, Paul Kniest, said the disappointment members would feel over the lack of new funding commitments from Labor would be countered by relief that unlike the Coalition, Labor “will not undermine our universities’ capacities to attract and support disadvantaged students by cutting $250 million from university funding over the next three years".

“NTEU understands that the ALP’s primary focus, if re-elected, will be to complete the unfinished business of implementing the higher education policies it announced in 2009," Mr Kniest said. The union congratulated Labor for committing to introduce legislative protection for academic freedom.

The Group of Eight coalition of leading universities refused to comment on Labor’s election statement because it contained no new commitments for higher education.